Lillian had a career peak from the mid 50's to early 60's selling well over a million singles for the Epic label. This was an Epic Christmas single circa 1961. She also later released tunes via Paramount, Coral, Sunbeam and Phillips and later after showbiz, invested in some resort property in South Florida. In fact it was her yacht "Monkey Business" that was lent out for a trip that included Senator Gary Hart and jeans model Donna Rice as fateful passengers. Lillian eventually died of lung cancer in 1998.

Sacramento based popsmith Anton Barbeau has risen from the paisley bubblegum stew and collaborated with neo-psychedelic tribe members like Bevis Frond, and Kimberley Rewof the Soft Boys. He's playing on New Year's Eve in his hometown as well...

Another up & coming indie rocker outfit with Xmas audio offerings is The Layaways from Chicago. They've put forth a few tracks for free online at their website including this version of O Christmas Tree...

The mighty Rev should need no introduction, but just in case you are not prepared for his twisted holiday surfabilly... hit google and what you find in reverance to him should clear it all up for ya...

Rapper Jim Jones is affiliated with The Dipset posse in NYC andon his latest Christmas EPand thows the N* word around a lot more than that Kramer dude... almost like Santa and his Ho Ho Ho's...

now one talented Holly Jolly mofo you don't want to miss, nor mess with is Bootsy...

He earned his chops playing bass with James Brown back in the day... and went onto much glory with Parliament Funkadelic and has been a solo cat and producer for many moons... dig his new Xmess vibes he's laying on ya...

They are an amazing success story overall, even if a lot of the material seems stylistically borrowed, most obviously from the stylings of Elton John, but I heard traces of everyone from Tony Orlando & Dawn to the Bee Gees, Faith No More and Queen...

However they were quite good onstage, the frontman demands attention and rightfully gets it...

The Scissor Sisters displayed an informal charm often lacking in bands that do the big sheds and whatnot, and playing to a friendly San Francisco crowd likely helped...

They told an amusing tale of a recent holiday themed show with Buena Vista Social Club in Holland in which most of the audience was in garish blackface...

they also mentioned that they had just taped an appearance for the soap opera Passions on NBC airing February 8th and 9th. Along with performing onstage, the band 's resident diva will play some sort of imaginary conjured spirit summoned by a young witch...

This music here was composed for play at the Disney Theme park attraction Haunted Mansion, and based on Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. They were composed in the style of Danny Elfman by other talented Imagineers working within the vast Disney empire ...

This one has the Nightmare theme and was used in 2001 for holiday themed the exhibit... it has since been retired from use, and a new Danny Elfman score is used. Here is John Debney's stretching room theme

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Last week got a chance to catch Dan The Automator's live set with a full band and lotsa guest MC's. It was the 2nd night of his ensemble's tour, so things weren't nailed down super tight quite yet, but the group locked onto some tight grooves early on in the set and did not relent...

The tour & it's big red branded bus is sponsored by the video game 2K sports and the whole thing was a first class production. Following the sucess of the animated Gorillaz project, the Automator's latest deal has tie ins including the Automator's production of the latest NBA game soundtrack, 2 albums (one with guest rappers & of course my fave, the instrumentals...)

Oh and in the video game, with it's hyper realistic graphics, Dan The Automator appears in "NBA 2K7" as a playable character.

Twas a packed house, at SF's Mezzanine, with hundreds of hip hop heads enjoying an opening set from Seattle's Common Market. I missed the Rondo Bros. apparently, and woulda liked to have seen what that was all about. I've enjoyed some of the remix work they've done.

As for the full Automator experience... it was never off, just not always on.

It was only the 2nd show of a 13 show west coast run with this lineup... but it was an overall great experience, sort of a live mixtape of sorts...

Amidst the chaos of all the musicians & rappers, The Automator his bad self was chill & relaxed before the show, enjoying a glass of wine on the couches in the backstage ...

He had assembled a combo of white boys in black suits, and for indie dork cred backing band leader Jim Greer of the Rondo Bros. of course wore wack white sneaks...

Greer is a folksy, ex-college radio DJ dude originally outta New Hampshire that has become one of the Automator's main "go to" guys in the Bay Area. The cat has joined Nakamura on many projects in the studio and live including Deltron 3030 with Del, Dr. Octagon with Kool Keith, Handsome Boy Modeling School with Prince Paul and Lovage with Mike Patton.

Amongst the folks Greer and crew were backing onstage were Chali 2na from Jurassic 5, Casual and Domino from Hieroglyphics and AG from DITC.

Oh and there was some bearded sorta semi heavy hindu-tallica hippie cat named Gavin from some San Jose major label "nu metal" concept act called Dredg. All I know is I couldn't really hear him...

The MC's were lively and ran the stage when they were up. Occasionally Nakamura would venture out from behind the turntables and flaunt a beatbox or meekly use the mic. I was surprised how few funky moves a guy who once ran a "A Handsome Boy Modeling School" had. I think the Automator might need to learn the robot...

But he's a sweet fella, and is definitely running things... so who cares if he can mambo or stalk the stage in a rage...

he' up to a whole lot more than basic bragging & dick wagging these days...

After the show... not only did I pay props to Nakamura and his frayed at the edges Franz Ferdinand lookalike back up group, I got to chat with one of the MC's on the tour.

That being straight outta the Bronx... world... meet AG formerly of the legendary Diggin' In The Crates crew...

psst ...I offer a track from this old school hip hoppers latest Look Records disc, on this one he recounts his legendary crew outta NYC... and he claims to be so cool he's "frozen like a coke habit"...A.G - Frozen

In 1942, Woody Guthrie moved to Brooklyn and soon, through his mother-in-law (the renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt), he became involved with the Coney Island Jewish Community. He wrote songs about Hanukkah, about Jewish history and about spiritual life.

After his death in 1967, these songs sat forgotten in archives. "Lost" for almost 30 years, Guthrie's Hanukkah lyrics were discovered in 1998 by Woody's daughter, Nora Guthrie. She was so inspired by what she found, she asked the Klezmatics to write new music for the lyrics.

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